Determined to Excel

by Thomas Bwire

He is just 13 years of age and one can easily think that his paintings are done by an adult. This is not the case, meet the self spoken Wesley Osoro. His seriousness shows all over his face that he’s a young person determined to see that he excels in what he does. Being a member of Uweza Art Club, he never misses classes on Saturday, when not attending school.

Wesley with one of his completed paintings

A first born child in a family of 2 brothers and a sister, he shares with me his sentiments that his passion with the paint brush started while he was 5 years old. “I used to see photos in salons and shops whenever I walked around the neighborhoods. Slowly by slowly I then started small by drawing some houses, cars, and anything that came to my mind,” says Wesley as he works on his most recent painting.

Working on his most recent painting

I take a few minutes to just sit back and watch as his hands move on the painting he’s currently working on of a landscape. The landscape image is taking good shape and one can clearly see the background full of clouds and standing hills neatly done. To find out why Wesley loves painting landscapes, I pose the question to him. “They look nice and are easy to draw,” is his response.

According to his art instructor Joseph Wanderi, Wesley is a boy who has the greatest passion in what he does. “Art is in him, and he’s born artist I must say,” Joseph tells me.  “I am now looking at how I can introduce him to an advanced stage of painting on a canvas which will be more professional and his work can now be showcased in bigger exhibitions to market him out there.”

 

Besides painting, Wesley also plays soccer on the Uweza team. Before parting ways, he tells me that his parents are very supportive of what he does and that is what makes him have the heart to excel in the near future.